The Army on Thursday rescinded an order, issued earlier this month, for garrison commanders around the globe to stop spending money on many environmental protection activities as part of an effort to conserve funds for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. After reporters questioned the Pentagon on Thursday about the order, which was contained in an internal e-mail, Army officials said they had found the money necessary to keep environmental programs on track.

August 17, 2003 | Jonathan Kirsch, Jonathan Kirsch, a contributing writer to the Book Review, is the author of the forthcoming "God Against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism."

Among the defenders of our country during World War II, perhaps the least celebrated are the horse-mounted guardsmen who served on the home front in California. Members of the San Francisco Polo Club, riding their own polo ponies, guarded the beaches near the Golden Gate Bridge. Cowboys from Southern California ranches patrolled the hills overlooking aircraft plants in Glendale and Burbank.

President Bush, telling Americans on Wednesday that they are safer now that Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq has been dismantled, for the second day in a row touted his efforts to bolster the U.S. economy. In a speech at a Boeing Co. plant that manufactures fighter jets, Bush remained unwilling to declare victory in Iraq, saying: "Our work is not done." Nor did he mention the ongoing search by coalition forces for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Re "Antiwar Protest Turns Violent at Port of Oakland," April 8: I think there is something larger and more frightening than the regime of George W. Bush that plagues our society. We need an adjustment in attitude during this catastrophic war. The fact that Oakland police fired rubber bullets at protesters is symptomatic of the fascist attitude of our government and media with regard to popular opinion. President Bush is killing thousands of innocent people, labeling the massacre a "liberation," and I think we have every right to demand that he cease these war crimes.

Both houses of Congress approved bills Thursday to spend nearly $80 billion on the U.S.-led war against Iraq and related expenses, but the House added to its version a measure meant to punish France, Germany, Russia and Syria for opposing the coalition to topple Saddam Hussein.

When Pentagon officials decided to allow hundreds of reporters to accompany forces fighting in Iraq, the result could have been a public relations bonanza. Some media executives, though welcoming the extraordinary access, were concerned the reporters might become a propaganda tool of the military. It hasn't quite worked out that way. An increasing number of reporters have produced raw stories that convey the ghastly realities of war and sometimes contradict official versions of events. The U.S.

The most thrilling part of 1943's Academy Awards ceremony, wrote columnist Louella Parsons, had nothing to do with the Oscars. Rather, it was the sight of two dreamboats -- Tyrone Power and Alan Ladd -- in their private's uniforms, marching onto the Cocoanut Grove stage after the national anthem. The movie stars presented the flag, along with a list of 27,677 names -- all members of the motion picture industry who also had signed up for the armed forces.

The leading contenders for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination quickly lined up behind President Bush's decision to attack Iraq, with even former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean backing away from earlier plans to continue criticizing the war after the fighting began. But the Democratic hopefuls are just beginning to grapple with the longer-term question of how to reformulate their broader critique of Bush's foreign policy in light of the war.

Re "Iraq War Cost Could Soar, Pentagon Says," Feb. 26: President Bush has not yet recommended a concrete way to pay the costs of the war on terror, including the attack on Iraq. Apparently, Bush has chosen to increase the deficit instead, relying on the stimulated economy to raise government revenues, hopefully thereby paying for the war at a later date. The last time we tried to put a war "on the cuff" was Vietnam. We paid dearly for this failure to face up to the real costs. Therefore, I propose we levy a terrorism-war gasoline tax increase of $1 per gallon, mitigated for regressive impact via a payroll tax reduction.

They were the girls of war, teenage volunteers who took up arms in one of the largest female armies any nation has put on a modern battlefield. For years they fought, sustaining themselves with a dream central to Vietnamese culture: When there was peace, they would find a good husband and bear children. For many of them, it was not to be.